


Day Three - Time

by ShortyStacks, Skiewrites



Series: Linktober 2020 [3]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: BOTW Temple of Time, Day Three - Time, Gen, Linked Universe, Linktober, Linktober 2020, Temple of Time, uhhh this is my first time tagging stuff-
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26785138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShortyStacks/pseuds/ShortyStacks, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skiewrites/pseuds/Skiewrites
Summary: The hero of Time- no, the Hero's Shade, stands before Hylia's statue in a Temple sharing his previous namesake. Seeing her statue cracked and covered in moss and ivy both brought a feeling of satisfaction, but also simple pity. The Shade thought it would feel different. Better.But it does not.
Series: Linktober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949662
Kudos: 34





	1. ART!!

**Author's Note:**

> I knew what i wanted to do the second I saw "Time"


	2. FIC

The first time he sees her statue, he is nine and naive.

The statue is tall, towering over him like nothing he had ever seen before. The Great Deku Tree had been taller, sure, but she looks down at him in a way that the Great Deku Tree never would.

The Princess has just gone missing. He has three pretty gems of great power, not that he has learned anything of power yet. He has his Kokiri Sword and his Hylian Shield, and he was pretty sure he was prepared to face anything that was behind the statue of the lady.

He plays her a simple melody, and he wonders if this woman in front of him would sing along with it. It’s not the right song, a thought comes to mind. But, nevertheless, he plays the song of time, the melody coming out of him like it was from his very spirit, and a door behind the statue disappears.

He stared at the statue for a minute longer, before walking towards his destiny.

.

The second time he sees her statue, he is sixteen in body, but ever so young in mind.

She looked no different than she did seven years ago, seven minutes ago. She still stood tall over her subjects, looking down at the in disappointment.

The Princess is still missing. He has an ocarina, the Master Sword and weapons that he had suddenly outgrown. He still has Navi by his side and an outlook on life that he would need to fight against the evil. Neither will be with him when he’s finished with this adventure, but the only person who knew that was the statue in front of him.

He looked down at the ocarina. There’s a tune in his mind, but he doesn’t know how to play it on his instrument. It’s familiar in the way that he’s sure that he knows it, and yet, it’s backwards in a way that he doesn’t understand. But he just shakes it off. If it’s that important, someone will teach it to him. Instead he looks back up at her.

It’s been seven years and he wonders how much has changed to the world outside. He doesn’t feel the need to look back as he leaves the Temple of Time.

.

The next time he sees her statue, he is nine again, but now too experienced to be called young.

He now had a name for her. Hylia. The Goddess of Time. There are many more names he would like to call her, but it’s best not to tempt fate, at least now of all time.

He’s going to need fate on his side to find Navi.

.

He sees her again when he is what people assume is about twelve, but he has long giving up counting the years at this point.

She is much the same, or Link assumes as such. The same height, the same disappointing glare. The same marble finish, but now Link notices the cracks in her dress, the tear stains that run down her face. She mourns in anger. All these things, things that Link would have never seen when he was a child, seem glaringly obvious to him now.

His second journey was finished, and he still had no answers that he was originally looking for. Still no Navi, but now a stronger sword and masks of all abilities. The bleu ocarina sits on his hip like it was always supposed to be there.

There’s a song, stuck in his head. It’s not a song that was necessary for his quest, not the one that got stuck in his head when he first saw her, but it was a beautiful song, nonetheless. Epona’s song.

Link left the statue alone with only one final glare as parting, before going to visit a ranch.

.

He manages to avoid the statue of her until the coronation.

It didn’t take a lot of work from his end, really. The Temple of Time is out of the way when Link must visit the market and then the castle just beyond it, and he has yet to see any other statues of the Goddess, of which he just thanks his luck and moves on with his life.

But the coronation is avoidable, and thus he sits in the second row of seats, his hand grasped tightly by Malon, as they watch the Princess of Hyrule walk down the aisle to greet the statue, who still weeps for their future still even though the evil has been killed almost two decades ago now. They follow their Queen out of door onto the cheering streets.

He doesn’t look back, but he feels her eyes stare at the back of his neck as the door closes behind them.

.

With the jumping of eras, comes the seeing of statues, it seems.

But no matter the time that he sees her, she is the same as he has ever seen her. She is still carved in villainous white, face still stained from tears. Where in Sky’s timeline she stands grandly over her people, and in Wild Hyrule she hides in corners with the people she vowed to protect, she’s always there, always watching, always mourning.

It not until he sees that final portal, the one that will take them home, that he truly understands her tears.

.

The last time he sees her in his physical body, it is not as a statue, but as an ethereal being.

But even as a Goddess standing in front of him instead of a statue, she is still taller than him, looking down at him. Her eyes are filled with sorrow and he just doesn’t get it anymore. After everything he’s been through,

She tries to lead him to peace, but his soul has been consumed by the sin of wrath and the demon of regret. She tries to lead him away, but he can no longer see the path that she tried to set out for him so long ago.

She tries to apologise, but the Hero of Time does not want to hear it.

And thus, the Hero of Time does the only thing he can do, and so he becomes a mere shade of what he used to be. No matter what he does, how many students he takes on,

Stuck living in the shadow of the statue of the Goddess of Time.

.

It’s when time is now just a figure of speech, when it has all meaning to the person that is named the Hero of Time, that he stands before this statue, a mere representation of what he had learned that she was, that he finally got to his knees, held his hands together, and let a prayer fall from his lips.

He hates her. He hates her with every fibre of his being. He hates what she stands for, for what she has caused in his life. All the pain, all the suffering, all the trauma.

And yet here he was.

Uttering a prayer.

.

_“And they say, so this day, that the Hero’s shade is still there, on his knees, praying his regrets away.”_


End file.
